1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to aspects associated with a business, and, more particularly, to an engine, system and method for providing cloud-based business intelligence.
2. Background of the Invention
Business intelligence (“BI”), as used herein, includes computer-based techniques used in identifying, obtaining, extracting, and/or analyzing business data, for a business or for portions of a business. By way of non-limiting example, BI may include sales revenue by product or department, or by generation costs or net income. BI computing may provide historical, current or predictive views of aspects of a subject business. As such, BI computing may include any methodology, process, architecture, or technology that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information for the business, and that may thus be used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making.
As such, BI computing may support improved business decisions. By comparison, while BI uses technologies, processes, and applications to analyze mostly internal data, competitive intelligence (“CI”) gathers, analyzes and disseminates information focused on competitors. Nevertheless, broadly understood BI typically includes, as a subset thereof, CI.
BI may also perform or make use of data integration, data quality, data warehousing, master data management, text and content analytics, and similar information management functions to obtain or prepare data. Therefore, “data preparation” and “data usage” may be deemed separate but linked segments of a BI architecture. For example, data usage may include reporting, analytics and dashboards, while data preparation may include data conversion and/or warehousing for use in such reporting, analytics and dashboards.
As used herein, “analytics” or “business analytics” may focus on developing new strategies and understanding of business performance based on the data indicating the metrics of BI. As used herein, “dashboard,” “interface,” “graphical user interface” (“GUI”) and like terms may indicate an interactive display to a user, such as on a display screen of a computing device, that provides the user with information in an organized and understandable manner.
As such, a first generation of BI computing harnessed information via kluge information extraction and proprietary reporting, which necessitated the vast data stores and data warehouses that held data in large databases. In such initial stage BI computing, executives could not access the large volume of cross-enterprise information in a consumable format that would allow for actionable decisions absent detailed knowledge of silo-reporting mechanisms, if such mechanisms were even available. This results in a vast data store of information that is not consumable by, insightful for, or actionable to the most important decision makers in a given company.
A second generation of BI computing leverages the traditional enterprise technology environment by creating virtual data warehouses stored via Enterprise Information Integration (“EII”) technologies that allow for providing of the resulting data in an easier-to-use dashboard technology with reporting. However, such dashboard technologies provide improved access to only the same kluge information that first generation BI computing was built upon. As such, even these second generation BI computing systems bind a company to a large supplier of BI systems, wherein the company's use of the supplied system is invariably bogged down by the weight of the company's own voluminous data generated to the BI system.
Thus, billions of dollars have been spent on traditional BI solutions, but BI in the available art still suffers from three fundamental problems: it is a data choke point; it is a cost center, and it does little to simplify or enhance the user experience. Therefore, the need exists for an engine, system and method of using data for BI that alleviates BI as a data choke point, eliminates BI as a cost center, and simplifies and enhances the user's experience with BI.